What is your opinion on the current state of videogame development? With the industry becoming more and more mainstream (The videogame industry brought in 17+ billion dollars in 2007), do you feel that the developers are becoming watered down versions of themselves in the attempt to make an extra buck? What about the American vs European perspective?
Jon Hare, a videogame industry insider brings his comments to the forefront by bluntly saying that the "quality of programming has gone down."
He also talks about the different perspectives that the Americans see in videogames versus the English:
"Something that is not often talked about is just how Americanized the industry became when the big media companies came in. The American approach is seen as good business, but in a lot of cases the American side of things just doesn’t understand our humor. Even if you look at Grand Theft Auto which is probably the most successful British developed product in recent times it’s still very Americanized,"
Jon Hare then talks about how big businesses has influenced the direction that developers have taken in the creation of their titles:
"What’s been hard for me as a designer and team leader is how difficult it is to get people to trust you. Not just publishers either, but often people within your own team. I honestly believe that the quality of programming has gone down. People like [Sensible stalwarts] Chris Yates, Chris Chapman and Julian Jameson – they virtually did the big games on their own. It was a different environment back then because the hardware was more stable. You didn’t need loads of people running the graphics, programs just ran at 60 frames per second – so the onus was on the creative and not about fighting with the display. You had a smaller team and that meant you started to get some of the subtle little things done that made such a difference to the final game."
Agree or disagree?